He’s used to tough rides. Starting with riding bulls in high school rodeo, Cam McCown has separated his shoulder three times driving standardbreds. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Cameron McCown knows that driving is a tough busihess, but he’s accustomed to tough business. He trained on the back end of a bucking bull…in rodeo!
Columbus, OH — There is nothing more beautiful on two wheels than eight or nine sulkies whisking off the fourth turn and scurrying down the stretch.
Even more beautiful are the beasts pulling the sulkies, the tightly-muscled, thin-legged horses that are some of creation’s most gorgeous creatures.
You, too, could have a career with horses. Click for more information from the Ohio Harness Horseman Association.
And those drivers who guide those bikes, sitting behind those speeding steeds, are lifers and are as committed to their craft as those horses are to finding a feed bag.
Hall of famer Hal McCoy writes UD basketball and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
It gets into their blood so deeply that some of them said neigh instead of no.
Some come from strange backgrounds, like bull riding.
That’s the case for Cameron McCown, currently pulling on the reins at Eldorado Scioto Downs.
It was an overcast and rain-filled evening recently, but to McCown and his fellow drivers, every day in the sulky is a brilliant day.
On this day, McCown was in the bike for 12 of the 14 races. The rides were much smoother and longer than his time on the back of a snorting bull.
“I did high school rodeo when I was younger,” said McCown. “I went down to Waynesville and said, ‘Hey, I want to do this.’ So I hopped on one and just started off.”
Off is the key word because one spends more time off a bull than on it.
“It was OK, but I didn’t make a living of it, but I got by,” he said with a smile that showed he still has his teeth.
Asked how he de-saddled and climbed into a sulky, his wife, Jessica, intervened with, “He met me. We started dating and I got him into it, so you can blame me.”
Jessica is a daughter to famous trainer Brian Brown and is continuing the family affair.
“We’re a team and we have a stable,” said McCown. “She trains, I drive. It’s a husband-wife thing.”
Jessica laughed and said, “We met through a mutual friend and kinda got set up.”
The couple owns 30 horses stabled at their home in Delaware, OH. During the recent program at Scioto, Cam drove five of the couple’s own standardbreds and raced horses own by other trainers in seven races.
Out of their stable he guided Don’t Tell Rosa in the fourth, Tellitlikeiseeit in the fifth, VH Goldie in the sixth, Dragon Cause in the 11th and Heerz Legend in the 13th.
And what does Jessica think about Hubby’s driving?
Husband and wife team…Jessica trains and Cam drives. “He’s very good at getting speed out of the horses,” Jessica says.
“Um, he does pretty good, I think,” she said. “He can be a little aggressive at times. We have different personalities, I guess. I tend to not be like that.
“But he is very good at getting speed out of them,” she added. “Very good at getting them off the gate. So he’s pretty good.”
As she spoke, the 36-year-old Cam smiles and awaited his turn. Aggresseve?
“Well, most of the time,” he said. “Sometimes when you’re 30 to 1 through 99 to 1, you’re usually out there just trying to get a check,” he said. “But when you’ve got lower odds, you just try to win the race.”
“I kinda like the young horses,” he said. “Getting ‘em ready. It’s just a real competitive sport. But we love getting ‘em ready and then taking them to go race.”
There is, of course, danger lurking on all tracks and Jessica admits it lurks in her mind.
“It does, he’s been in a couple (wrecks),” she said. “He separated his shoulder on one in which he somersaulted,” she said. “It’s like anything, there is always a possibility with any activity in sports.
“But you can’t think about it, let it get into your head, or you don’t do well,” she added, realizing that Cam has dislocated his shoulder three different times.
McCown said he was involved in an incident at Miamy Valley when his horse’s front leg hit the wheel of another buggy and it somersaulted him.
Asked what the sensation was when he is launched from his seat and what is his reaction, McCown smiled and said, “Oh, shit.”
There was a freight train-like wreck on May 8 at Scioto that involved five bikes when a horse up front broke stride and mass mayhem followed. Both bikes and drivers were flying north, south, east and west.
All five drivers were injured, but all five horses suffered nothing more than scrapes and bruises.
Aaron Merriman suffered five broken ribs, a shattered scapula and a partially collapsed lung. Kayne Kauffman fractured a heel.
And it was a really tough spill for David Miller, one of the nation’s leading drivers year after year.
Also in that race was veteran driver Brett Miller, a first cousin to David Miller.
Driver David Miller hopes to be back on the track by August after the May 8 pileup at Scioto Downs.
“I was lucky,” said Brett. “I was involved, but when I hit I went straight up in the air and landed back down in the seat. But I’ll be honest with you, I thought David was dead.
“And it affected me for about two weeks,” he added. “I was nervous, it was in my head, and I thought about it while I was out there.”
David Miller suffered a compound fracture on an ankle that required surgery, fractured five ribs, one of which was poking through his body after the accident.”
Like all these driver/athletes, it’s all part of the game and they all climb into the sulky seats and pursue the purses.
David Miller plans his return the first part of August.
As do most harness drivers, it all started at county fairs and McCown said, “Actually, I was top driver at the fairs for about four years.
“Then I started going to the race tracks, doing well, and kinda got away from the fairs.”
The McCowns are proud of a win last year in the Sire Stakes at Scioto with My Pal Sparky.
It’s a tough game with cloud highs and dirt lows.
“Sometimes it’s a good thing and sometimes you’re mad about the outcome, but sometimes you’re happy about it all,” he added.
McCown may be only 36, young for a veteran driver, but he has plopped his posterior into a buggy seat to race for cash 10,975 times and won 1,174 times.
He has won $10.9 million dollars in purses, $722,000 this year with 48 wins, 52 places and 33 shows.
That certainly beats the blisters from bull-riding.
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